Abstract
The aim of the present study was to evaluate the usefulness of quantitative nucleic acid sequence-based amplification (QT-NASBA) to detect Plasmodium spp. in diagnostic specimens of patients suspected of having malaria in a clinical setting in a non-endemic country. During the 4-month recruitment period, 113 patients were enrolled in the study, of which 93 were diagnosed as non-malaria and 20 as malaria cases on the basis of clinical and microscopic criteria. All microscopically positive cases had QT-NASBA counts of >0.1 parasites/mul and there was a significant positive correlation between the parasite counts obtained with both diagnostic methods. Of the 93 microscopically negative cases, six had a positive QT-NASBA result. Three of these cases had a recent history of malaria for which specific treatment was taken. In the other three cases there was no history of malaria and QT-NASBA results in these cases were near the cut-off level (>0.1 parasites/mul) of the test. The results demonstrate that QT-NASBA is a useful technology for the diagnosis of malaria in a reference laboratory, and it is very helpful in cases of low parasitemia
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 555-557 |
Journal | European journal of clinical microbiology & infectious diseases |
Volume | 22 |
Issue number | 9 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2003 |